Are You Making A Mini Displayport Female to DVI Male Adapter Cable?
We have tried to answer most questions here in our blog, to discuss this topic further please go to our official dvi to mini displayport adapter thread on our forum.
Q: I need to hook up my computer with standard DVI output to the new Apple Cinema Display. For this I need a Mini Displayport Female to DVI Male Adapter cable. Are you working on making this?
A: This is a complicated adapter. We have been looking into it for some time. What we have found is this: Mini Displayport to DVI adapters don’t work the same way in both directions. This means we need to design, tool, and build a completely new PCB board to do this type of conversion. These PCB boards can be quite complicated and take some time to design, and as far as we know, nobody has created a board like this yet. We are working to see if we can design the board, once the board is done, the rest of the cable wouldn’t be any problem as we have both of the connectors here at our factory. If we can make this adapter we will post it to our website as soon as we have a ship date.
If you are interested in this adapter please take a moment to reply below so that we can gauge the demand for this product!
Your comments are appreciated!
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Added 6/11/09
Hi Everyone, thanks for the overwhelming support and feedback on this blog entry.
I have a couple questions for everyone if you have a chance to respond. Is everyone expecting/needing a dual link adapter out of this? We all know that Apple currently has the dual link adapter to work in the opposite direction, but it has some problems. My major concern is that I really don’t believe that we’ll be able to create a dual link adapter that works when even Apple wasn’t able to make it perfectly.
What we’ve been looking into currently is a single link adapter, this would limit the resolution you could use on your mini displayport monitors to 1920 x 1200. I would like to get everyones’ opinions on this that has already posted here. Would you still want the adapter if you were limited to single link resolution?
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Added July 22, 2009
We are making some significant progress on development of this adapter. We have a manufacturer for the crucial chip component of the PCB board to do the conversion and we are proceeding with the PCB design now. At this point we are not sure how much longer the development process will take or what the cost will be at this point but as soon as I have more information I will let everybody know!
-Andrew Lang
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Added August 7th 2009
I just received some preliminary jpg’s from my engineering department. I think these will give everyone a good idea of what we are talking about making here. The colors are not what we are planning, it will probably be in Apple white, similar to our other products.
Key Features:
- No need to connect the adapter to the wall for power, our adapter gets power straight from the computer via USB.
- USB passthrough. Since we have a female USB on the same end of the mini displayport female end you can plug the USB cable from your Apple Cinema Display straight into it and get the same functionality you would have as if you were plugging it straight into your computer.
- No need for an additional DVI cable. Our adapter will already have a DVI and USB cable coming out of it so you won’t need to purchase any additional cables or have a complicated connection scheme.
- HDCP compatibility
Update: August 11th, 2009
We just completed the 3D model, please see the pictures.
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- DVI to Mini Displayport Adapter
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- DVI to Mini Displayport Adapter 2
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- DVI to Mini Displayport Adapter 3
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- DVI to Mini Displayport Adapter 4
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- DVI to Mini Dispalyport Adapter 5
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- DVI to Mini Dispalyport Adapter 6
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- DVI to Mini Dispalyport Adapter 7
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- DVI to Mini Dispalyport Adapter 8
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- DVI to Mini DP 3D1
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- DVI to Mini DP 3D 2
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- DVI to Mini DP 3D 3
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- DVI to Mini DP 3D 4
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- Mini DP to DVI Testing
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Added September 4th 2009
Our adapter will undergo testing at our facility this week, once positive results are back we can move ahead with full production and give out the anticipated arrival date and take pre-orders. Stay tuned!
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Added September 22nd 2009
Our adapter has been successfully tested using a PC with DVI to a Dell Displayport monitor, the next step is to successfully get compatibility with Mac products as well. This should not be a major issue as the platforms are very similar.
Please see the photo below of the testing:
Mini DP to DVI Testing
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Added October 12th 2009
We’ve had a lot of requests for an update on the status of the adapter and its testing. So far we’ve been able to make the adapter work with standard size Displayport (found on PC monitors) and DVI out on both Mac computers and PC’s. Unfortunately the primary function of this adapter is to have it work with the 24″ Apple Cinema Display and we are still running into some bugs with this problem. We are working with an IC chip supplier to create the PCB design for this board and they don’t have an ACD for testing so we have gone ahead and purchased one for them to use in testing. We’ve shipped it to them this week and they will be using it for testing this upcoming week. Unfortunately until they sort out the compatibility issues with the ACD its very hard for us to have a definite delivery date. We are hopeful that allowing our IC chip supplier to borrow the monitor for testing will expedite the design troubleshooting process and we will be able to get this adapter working with the Apple Cinema Display more quickly.
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Added November 6th 2009
Hello Everyone,
We’re still working with our current PCB board manufacturer to see if they can work out the compatibility issue with the Apple Cinema Display. We believe this is an issue with mac software as we have no problems with any PC Displayport based displays.
We’re also starting new projects for HDMI to Mini Displayport converters that should be easier to manufacture. If this product happens to be available before our DVI to Mini Displayport adapter it wouldn’t be difficult to use it for DVI computers with a simple short HDMI to DVI dongle.
As far as compatibility with the 27″ iMac, its definitely a goal to get this to work as we see that there will be a big market for this. Unfortunately, we may have to wait until the adapter is built before we can test it on this new iMac.
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Update! December 29th 2009
This adapter is now available for order! Click here to view our product page!
Single link would be perfect, please continue to update us with your progress..
I need a DVI to miniDisplayport adaptor, so that I can connect my MacPro 2008 to the new Apple LED 24″ displays. I was also interested in getting a more powerful graphics card to take advantage of Snow Leopard, like the NVIDEA GeForce GTX 285, yet it also only has 2 DVI ports, no Displayports.
Thank you for working on this
Looking in to getting two 24″ LED Cinema screens for my MBP DVI. I planned to use this with the Matrox Dual Head2Go DP box, but requires me to get from the DVI to the Displayport. A real shame Apple hasn´t made this an option for us since that screen is so nice.
I wish you luck on making this possible for me soon.
Another request for such an adapter - single link is fine for me as it would just be to run new 24″ LED display with 2008 MacPro.
I need to connect DVI (apple and non apple machines) to the apple cinema 24″ led display. Thanks.
Good news Andrew and thank you for your nonstop feedback. I am one more in the list who needs a DisplayPort (male) to DUAL Link DVI (male) cable/adapter to make my Dell 3007wfp-hc monitor (fully) work with a Dell Precision M6400 laptop. Hope to hear from you soon!!! Up till now, only Single Link adapters are available in the market.
Keep up the good work
Cheers
You guys are great. How do I order one or two? Or how do I get on the list to be notified when it become available? Can we pre-order?
Absolutely DUAL LINK, for New 30 inch LED cinema display in near future.
Length should be 4ft or 5ft.
Please make it DUAL LINK!
Mini Displayport Female to DVI-Dual Link Male Adapter Cable will be a shell shocker!!!!!!!!!!
Highly interested in this becoming a reality! Found post on Macrumors.com and was amazed to hear someone was doing something about it!
Thank you for the R&D and look forward to purchasing a future product from you!
Yes pleassssssse.
310 responses from those really searching for the product. I am sure thousands more will grap it if they know such thing exists.
where is the preorder link?
I just received some preliminary jpg’s from my engineering department. I think these will give everyone a good idea of what we are talking about making here. The colors are not what we are planning, it will probably be in Apple white, similar to our other products.
Key Features:
1. No need to connect the adapter to the wall for power, our adapter gets power straight from the computer via USB.
2. USB passthrough. Since we have a female USB on the same end of the mini displayport female end you can plug the USB cable from your Apple Cinema Display straight into it and get the same functionality you would have as if you were plugging it straight into your computer.
3. No need for an additional DVI cable. Our adapter will already have a DVI and USB cable coming out of it so you won’t need to purchase any additional cables or have a complicated connection scheme.
4. HDCP compatibility
Andrew, you guys rock!!!!
Thank you for the update
Adapter me up, Baby!
Andrew:
Any sense of timing on availability?
Glad you’re making progress
Andrew:
“PS” - Did you get my e-mail with attachment?
very interested in this product !! please keep us posted on the progress.
- zach
those drawings look awesome! can’t wait!
I HAVE RECENTLY PURCHASED THE 24″ CINEMA DISPLAY AND HAVE NO WAY TO CONNECT TO THE MINI DV PORT FROM MY 1ST GENERATION MACBOOK… PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU HAVE A SOLUTION.
DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU PLAN TO HAVE THIS PRODUCT READY?
SAM
Wow! I was dreaming for an adapter like the one you have in production for my 24″ LED Cinema Display. The display is arguably the best consumer display on the market right now and it would enable me to use it with any computer I wish and more importantly for me, I could upgrade the included ATI card in my Mac Pro for an nVidia one! I will be looking for this when it comes out! Might even buy two to support you guys
Andrew,
Thanks for the updates and all the wonderful work that you all have been doing!
I’m I right assuming that the USB will be able to support built in iSight camera, and audio?
I’d definitely be interested in this type of connection. It would be nice if there were the delay was kept down to a minimum, but ultimately that would be a minor issue to use this monitor with my desktop.
I am desperate to get this adapter - I just bought the display but cannot connect to my Mac pro as I need DVI (It’s only a year old too). I am very annoyed that Mac do not make this.
Dual Link would be great if it were possible. However I am sure that the majority of posters here would be using this with the Apple LED Display, that currently can only host 1920×1200. So single link wouldn’t be a problem for those users.
And I think we are safe saying those of us wanting dual monitors will be running off a tower (Mac Pro) and can upgrade the graphics card for our individual needs, even though at present. Most Mac Graphic Cards, currently have either 1 DVI + 1 MiniDisplayPort, or 2x DVI, this adapter even in a single link flavor will be satisfactory to the majority of us.
Thanks again, for the continued R&D, updates, and having the guts to put this adapter in the consumers hands.
Thanks,
Andrew Ø
I can’t wait for this one to come out. I have a Macbook Pro that’s not even two years old and had my sights on the older Cinema Display but now that they’ve changed the port setup with no way to connect my laptop to it, I was very sad. I’ve been looking and looking and you guys seem to be the only ones on the ball and trying to get this done.
Is there any way to be informed as to when it will be available via e-mail or do we need to keep checking here. I have no problem either way but I’m psyched!!!!!!
Keep up the good work and wooohoooo!!!
Andrew - count me in! Can you tell us how do you handle the audio? It looks from your drawings that there might be audio inputs in your converter box to enable patching over from a standard speaker output but I’m not sure.
I hope you are keeping e-mail addresses and will notify us all when you get to general release. Every place I’ve gone - including the personnel at Apple Stores are frustrated and I hope you will have enormous volume with a little publicity and distribution. -Tony
I’m looking at my iMac sitting next to the 24″ ACD I recently purchased, but can not use, bc Apple doesn’t seem to care enough to provide a solution for those of us affected by this “latest square peg doesn’t fit yesterday’s round hole” snafu. They seem to be morphing themselves into the new microsoft monolith. I’m looking forward to purchasing your product and I will “bump it like a trumpet” if it works!
This wait is agonizing!
Why don’t you take some pre orders for the new cable we have all been waiting for? Let’s go, you made it, now sell it. Our monitors are getting dusty.
Thanks, PL
I apologize for the third comment on here but Andrew could you give us an update?
Thanks!
Can’t wait to get this! When can we order?
I desperately need this product. Please add me to the list.
Hey everyone,
I’m going to try to answer all the last few blog comments right now so bear with me. The adapter will have the ability to support the audio, and video camera functions of the monitor which are done through USB. Our adapter passes through the USB signal from the monitor to the computer so it will work as if you plugged your monitor into your computer. Needless to say this should work seemlessly with Mac’s but may not work at all with PC’s.
We just received a sample at our US factory and we are having it put through some testing with one of our reseller partners that has better testing equipment than we do. We should hear back next week the results. We have about 130 PCB boards on order but I know that may not be enough for the current need. When we do open up the pre-order I would suggest that if you really need this quickly you order fast because we will only be able to sell 130 or so at the get go.
The cost will be lower than any other adapters that are coming out on the market anytime soon and I feel (for reasons I’ve explained before) that it will be easier to use and allow you to use more of your monitors features.
Any further questions please don’t hesitate to e-mail me directly as posting a message here as the blog comment is not the best way to get a hold of me.
My e-mail is andrew@estore.circuitassembly.com
Thanks for your patience and support,
Andrew Lang
Please add me to your update list.
I’ll a supporter of your adapter DVI-Minidisplay!
Please add me to the waiting list - eagerly awaiting this cable.
Please add me to the waiting list, really need this cord. good job making it!
I need this bad!!! I cannot believe after buying my second 24′ LED Display that the guy I chatted with told me I just needed the DVI to Mini Display converter. I was so excited to run both monitors but to my disappointment this is the one adapter that is not available. Kudus to Circuitassembly.com for tackling this one!
Great Work! hopefully this will come out soon, very much needed.
Please add me to the list when it becomes available. Do you have an estimated cost? A new supporting video card costs at least $140.
I highly suggest sending a press release to Electronista.com
You can contact Monish K. Bhatia, Executive Publisher, mkbhatia@macnn.com
I suggest you send this information to Electronista asap. Also, are there any testing units available?
Thank you!
~ Jason
I would like to purchase one!!!! Very excited. Please keep me posted on the release date.
Andrew - how did the testing go? Any idea when we’ll be able to pre book this adapter?
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to post this update even though its definitely the update I wanted to post. I just returned from the Irvine Spectrum Apple Store and thanks to a very friendly and helpful staff I was able to do some testing on the adapter. The computers I hooked up the adapter to detected a second display but I could not get the ACD to light up. I’ve sent this information back to my engineers and we’re going to get things working. I handed off the prototype adapter to a fellow employee who has more resources to do some more thorough testing on the adapter than my “does it work or not version”.
The engineers have warned me that the PCB board still has a few software bugs that need to be worked out and they are working on it so I know that we will soon get this adapter working the way it should. I just wanted to post this to give everyone some news about our work… we are moving forward but it looks like we caught a small snag.
When something changes I’ll be sure to let everyone know.
Keep my Fingers crossed for you guys.
Unpacked my 24″ ACD yesterday just to discover that it does not work with my 1 Year old MBP!!
Desperately googled for a solution and it seems your the last Hope for a lot of dissapointed apple users.
Really hope your going to be succesfull.
…go for it guys, we believe in your skills!
regards from Vienna
PS: Please keep me posted on the release date!
Please add me to your notification list.
Definitely need one of these. Please let me know when this product in on the market.
Definitely need one of these too. Please let me know when this product in on the market in germany.
Andrew Lang,
Thanks for all the updates! I know this will be big even for the little community here in the Apple world!
Just know we appreciate all your effort and patience with this ’snag’.
You are the best!
I’m beginning to have doubts about whether or not you are capable of producing this item. You had to go to an Apple Store just to test it? come on!
Also so really looking for this adapter.
If possible please add me to your notification newsletter.
Iooking for this adapter.
If possible please add me to your notification newsletter.
Yes, I have been looking for this solution for a little while now. I have a new Apple Display, and an older tower with DVI. I have looked all over for this adapter. Please let me know when you come out with it.
Thanks